Hamas claims Netzarim bomb attack

The Islamic militant group Hamas has claimed responsibility for this morning's roadside bomb attack on an Israeli tank that wounded a soldier near the Jewish settlement of Netzarim in Gaza.

The incident occurred as Israeli and Palestinian negotiators tried to hammer out a peace accord in Egypt. They hope to strike a deal before the Israeli elections on 6 February, which could replace the current Israeli prime minister, Ehud Barak, with hawkish Ariel Sharon.

"The atmosphere is not negative and the discussions on refugees and land, including Jerusalem, are taking place in a very serious and detailed manner," said Palestinian information minister Yasser Abed Rabbo.

"If such an atmosphere continues until the end of the week, maybe we will then have a pleasant surprise. This does not mean we have agreed on any of the issues, but the talks are being held in an in-depth and serious way," he said.

The bomb attack at Netzarim has not hindered the talks so far and did not reverse an Israeli decision to open its borders with the Gaza Strip and the West Bank to the 16,000 Palestinians granted Israeli work permits last month.

The attack is the latest incident of violence in 16 weeks of unrest in which at least 368 people have died, most of them Palestinians.

Palestinian officials also responded to the change of administration in the US, accusing former US president Bill Clinton of siding with Israel during seven years at the helm of Middle East peace talks and calling on George W Bush's newly inaugurated administration to take a new tack.

The Palestinian negotiating team made the comments in a memorandum summing up the Clinton administration's role in brokering talks with Israel since the 1993 Oslo peace accords were signed. The US is the main sponsor of Middle East talks.

Palestinian officials close to negotiations with Israel said the letter was intended to notify US President George W Bush of Palestinian dissatisfaction at the way Clinton mediated the peace talks and to urge him "to avoid making the same errors".

"Over the last seven years in particular, the US has become increasingly identified with Israeli ideological assumptions," they stated in the memorandum.

They accused Washington of not taking a tough enough stand against Jewish settlements in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, the occupied lands that Israel captured from Jordan and Egypt in the 1967 war and that Palestinians want for a future state.